They also highlighted various technical features of how it can be developed as a thrust sector.

Organised by American International University Bangladesh (AIUB), the seminar on Small Enterprise Development was attended by State Minister for Education Ehsanul Haque as the chief guest. Specialists from Thailand and Sweden also spoke on the occasion among local experts.

The speakers at the business session of the daylong seminar chaired by Professor Abu Ahmed, chairman of Bangladesh Shilpa Bank, said 90 percent of the industrial establishments in the south Asian countries are SMEs.

Three keynotes titled Impact of Technology Density on the Agro-processing SMEs: An Insight Study on Bangladesh, Towards a Development Matrix for SMEs: From Developing Economics (Institutional Perspective) and Thai SMEs: Problems and Prospects were presented at the session.

Anwar Hossain and M Shahidul Islam of AIUB presented the first keynote while Akmal S. Hyder, professor of Business Administration, University of Gavle, Sweden, and Professor Sakit, Royal Institute of Technology, Thailand, presented the second and third keynotes respectively.

Not only in developing countries but also in the developed countries like Japan and Europe, SMEs play a significant role in developing national economy.

They pointed out that there is a huge information gap among general people about such enterprises and the government should play the pivotal role in reducing this gap.

At a questioning session, Professor Sakit laid emphasis on the role of education in developing small and medium enterprises and generating job positions of the overpopulated nation.